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Great ways to set financial goals

Listen closely as these experts talk about the benefits of creating financial goals.

Chapter 2: Your Financial Goals

Where do you want your business to go? And, what do you want it to offer you - personally? Thinking through the answers to these questions is what goal setting is all about. The financial goals freelancers need to consider split into two worlds: one set for their business, and another for their personal lives.

Transcript

(Chapter 2 Begins)

TONYA: So in creating your financial goals of the freelancer, there are probably different things you want to take into consideration, but you still want to set those goals, right?

00:02:04 JOHN: Absolutely. I mean, freelancer or not, your goals are going to be really important, because without them, you don’t really know what your striving for. You don’t know if you’ve accomplished something without setting those goals to begin with.

00:02:15 TONYA: Right. How do you know if freelancing is working for you?

00:02:17 JOHN: Right.

00:02:21 KRYSTAL: You have to set those checkpoints, I call them. You know, like checkpoints in my career. Where am I at? Do I need to add a team? Can I do this alone? So you have to understand the next levels or the next steps that you’re taking. So goalsetting is the foundation of everything.

00:02:31 TONYA: Yeah, and just because you’re a freelancer now doesn’t mean that you have goals of growing and creating a business and growing that business is that you have a team to help you make decisions. So that might be a financial goal you want to set. But regardless of what your goal is, we always want to make sure that we’re writing that goal out, right? Because if you don’t write it down, it’s not real.

00:02:48 JOHN: I mean, writing it down is a great step. You want to make it real. Not only that, but being very tactical with it. so you may say that I want to have a team of five people within the next three years. That’s great. You always want to have it be tied to a timeframe or dollar amount, depending on when that goal is to make it a lot easier to actually build that action plan.

00:03:05 TONYA: Yeah, and freelancers have goals. I know, my husband is a freelancer and we still have goals. We still want to buy a house. We still want to do things. So freelancers have goals, too.

00:03:13 KRYSTAL: When you talk about setting short-term or long-term goals, it’s kind of like buying a house, which is a short-term goal. But then long-term, you might be like, I want to buy real estate. I want to buy…

00:03:23 TONYA: A building!

00:03:23 KRYSTAL: Yeah! So but how do you get there? Like, what are the goals you have to set to get through the steps that happen?

00:03:28 TONYA: And I’m happy you said that Krystal, because I think that sometimes we have to look at our goals as what are the steps? We break them down. So we say, okay. I need to save this amount of money. So my long-term goal is to buy a building, but my short-term goal might be to pay off my debt so that I can get approved for that building. And then build my emergency fund so that I can begin to focus on saving for that building. So your goals, they happen in steps.

00:03:52 JOHN: And a good rule of thumb as far as those short, medium, and long-term goals is typically we think of a short-term goal within the next 12 months or so; medium term about a year to five years, and anything longer than five years, consider that maybe a long-term goal.

00:04:04 TONYA: Yeah, so for the freelancer who’s like, oh man, I’ve never set any goals. What do you guys think they should do? What is a good rule of thumb for getting your first goal out there?

00:04:13 KRYSTAL: Write it down, as soon as possible. They call me the Post-It girl in my office, because I always, if I have a thought in my head or something that I say I want to do or accomplish, I write it down immediately so I can get it out of my head, onto paper, and see it in front of me.

00:04:26 TONYA: Yeah, and committing it to memory.

00:04:27 KRYSTAL: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s a commitment, yeah.

00:04:31 TONYA: Yeah, it’s so powerful when you commit that goal to memory. And so you know what? I’m going to put this everywhere that I look, so that I can make sure I don’t forget about this goal.

00:04:38 JOHN: Yep. Bathroom mirror, your computer at work. That way you’ll see it all day, every day.

00:04:43 KRYSTAL: It’s actually right next to my closet so when I stop and look to the right, my goals are right there staring me in the face. They’re at eye level and right there staring me in my face.

00:04:49 TONYA: You know one of the big waves right now is inaud. parties. So that’s like setting short-term or long-term goals. So that’s awesome to do. If you’re a freelancer, I mean, sometimes you may not want to communicate, but it’s best to kind of collaborate with other freelancers and visualize together. I don’t think a lot of people realize that like taking it outside of your home and putting it on your phone or somewhere that you look regularly, so like every time you go to unlock that screen, your goals and dreams are staring you in the face. Nothing like that to remind you, hey, get it together.

00:05:16 JOHN: Yeah, right?

00:05:17 TONYA: So what we’re saying essentially is that freelancing isn’t much different from a traditional job. you still need to set those goals and make sure that you’re doing everything in your power to achieving them.

Let’s have a look at what we’ve learned.

(Music / Chapter 2 Ends with Key Takeaways slide)

Dollar Signs and Deadlines

Specifics are a necessary part of goal setting. Pick up some paper and a pencil to write down your financial goals. Once you have, add in how much money you need to save up - and by when - in order to reach these goals.